Page 55 of Sicilian Savior

“I’ll get to you soon, Piper. If they aren’t gone by the time I get there, we’ll just take them out together.”

This was the part where Marcus and I parted ways. My target was Victor, and he was on the opposite end of the house. Marcus would head off to meet Piper and extract Luca, providing cover if they ran into any problems.

Marcus and I gave each other a brief nod, then I stayed low and headed to the East Wing. Only two guards got in my way, and I disposed of them with ease before shoving their bodies in a room and sealing the door. Less chance for anyone to raise the alarm and make our escape more troublesome if I didn’t leave corpses in my path. The fewer chances we took of being discovered, the better. It was already going to be difficult convincing Luca to leave with two strangers, and doing it under live fire would be less than ideal. Poor kiddo would be terrified, and we wanted to avoid that at all costs.

I hoped the plan of having Piper video chat with Lucia would be enough to get him to come willingly, but we had a contingency plan to force him out if needed. He’d be freaked out, which made my heart clench in my chest, but when he landed safely in the arms of his mother, it would all be worth it.

Even though he was only a face I’d seen in a photo, and I hadn’t even met the kid, my need to protect him was as strong as my love for Lucia. He was part of her, and soon he would be a part of me too. I’d dreamed about him last night while I slept with Lucia in my arms. In my dream, we were laughing. She stood at my side while his chocolate brown eyes stared up with wonder into mine while I held up the fish we’d just caught.

It was one of the happiest moments of my life, even though it hadn’t happened.

Yet.

It would. Luca deserved a man in his life that wasn’t like the one I’d grown up with. A couple grunts to get him a beer, a belt to the face if I talked back, and otherwise... nothing. My father had barely acknowledged me, and it had gotten so lonely that sometimes I’d piss him off just so he’d pay attention to me, even though that attention usually came in the form of a fist to my face. It was still better than the loneliness I felt every day.

Then I’d gotten older... bigger. I hit six-foot-three before my senior year, and one night the old man had come home from a major pisser and chucked a beer bottle at my head. I caught it and sent it back with enough force I’d cracked his head wide open. He came at me, blood dripping down his face while he swung. I caught that as well, breaking his fist in my hand as I crushed it.

I’ll never forget the look in his eyes that night.

Fear.

He saw the boy he’d beaten to a pulp was now a man who could end him with ease. He threw me out that night, and I’d gone without a fight. My old truck became my home until I graduated high school and had bolted off to the Army as fast as my feet could take me. I never saw him again. Apparently, he died sometime between now and then since I was the one who’d inherited my uncle’s crap. And I didn’t care. He was a piece of shit who should have never been allowed to raise a child... just like the piece of shit I stalked toward now.

Luca had drawn a bad hand, just like me, getting a crappy father. But unlike me, I wasn’t going to let Luca fall through the cracks. He’d know the love of his mother, and I’d make it my life’s goal to make sure the two of them wanted for nothing. That they felt loved and cherished every damn day. I may not know Luca yet, but I loved him anyway.

I reached the hallway that housed the room of the man who didn’t deserve to be his father.

“You’ve got two guards at his door, Beefcake,” Wes said into my earpiece.

I laid low and slid my little mirror around the corner to get a look at the situation. Two men clutching assault rifles stood alert on either side of the door. That hadn’t been part of the nightly routine, but with Victor on high alert with the Vitalis breathing down his neck since I’d murdered Franco and Mario, apparently, he’d stepped up security.

No problem. I could handle two guards with ease.

I tucked my mirror away and pulled out my silenced pistol. No sense in alerting Victor to my presence. Crawling on my stomach, I slipped around the corner, aiming my sights at the man farthest away. I’d take him first, and as he dropped and the other guard turned to see what happened, I’d take him too.

Inhaling a breath and holding it, I pulled my trigger.

The guard dropped to the ground, and as predicted, his confused compadre turned to see what had happened. A second later, he collapsed on top of him.

A smirk tightened my lips. One step closer to doing the same damn thing to Victor. Although, for him, I wouldn’t fire so quickly. I wanted to coax out a symphony of agony while making sure he knew the reason he was dying.

He’d hurt my woman.

Rapid gunshots broke the silence surrounding me, and I pulled back around the corner and pressed up against the wall.

“What’s happening?” I whispered.

“Fuck,” Wes ground out. “Vitalis are here! They just rolled up at the gate. Thirty, forty guys at least. It’s a full-on assault.”

“An assault?” Marcus popped on the com. “How in the hell did we not hear anything about this?”

“I don’t know,” Wes answered quickly. “I swear there was nothing about this anywhere, and I’ve been monitoring every phone call and email that goes through their top guys. I haven’t heard jack shit about it in any chatter.”

“Well, they planned it somehow,” Marcus grumbled.

“After what happened with Mario and Franco, my best guess is they must have been worried Victor was surveilling them somehow,” Wes said. “The only explanation is they planned this in person instead of using any text or calls. No way for Victor to get wind of it that way... and us, apparently. Sorry, guys.”

“No sense in worrying about how it happened,” Piper interjected. “It happened. They’re here. We just need to adapt.”